First of all, let me just say….whoa! Emily Giffin went there with this book.
Before I started reading All We Ever Wanted I heard a lot of people say it is very different from all of her other books. Unfortunately for me (or maybe fortunately?), my only recollection of Emily Giffin is the movie “Something Borrowed” with Ginnifer Goodwin and Kate Hudson. It is the ULTIMATE rom-com, chick-flick, whatever you want to call it but it’s so cute. I know she’s written so many other books that I’ve heard are fantastic but I’m being honest here….this was all I knew.
So I dove into All We Ever Wanted without any preconceived notion. I was worried at first that it was a young adult fiction novel because I heard teenagers were a part of the main plot but I was thankfully reassured by all of my bookstagrammers (hey y’all!) that it was not YA and that I’d understand once I started reading.
The story is told from there perspective of three of the main characters: Nina, Lyla, and Tom. It follows a scandal that took place one night at a teenage party but affects all of the adults and parents involved.
What I liked about this book was how eloquently she went back and form from the perspective of a middle-age, upper class, white woman…. a middle-class, blue collar white man….. and a biracial, coming of age teenager. Set in Nashville where if you travel a few miles down the road you end up in a completely different social class. I was amazed at how people on the “other side” discuss and so quickly judge people that they know absolutely nothing about. I know this was “just a book” but Emily Giffin was clearly onto something with this. She didn’t just make this stuff up. This is sadly the world that we live in and so many struggle every day just to co-exist and make the best of their circumstances not asking to be born a different race or color or belonging to the socioeconomic class they are raised in.
Okay, I’ll get off of my semi-political soap box now but I will throw this out into the universe. Let’s all remember that we are all part of the same human race. We may look different, talk different, act different, raise our families different but a lot of us are simply trying to do our very best with the lives we are given. Try to have a heart. Help someone. That is why I believe that we were all placed on this earth. To show kindness and love to one another the same way our Heavenly Father did for ALL of us.
But back to the book 🙂 I literally flew through it in 4 days. I posted on my IG that it was like a reality tv show that you just couldn’t turn off and so many others agreed with me. Don’t let my little rant deter you, this book is juicy and addresses so many issues facing parents and young people alike today. You want to read this one. It’s a quick and pretty easy read.
Enjoy!
Karen
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